I 

973»7L63         National  Lincoln  Monument 
D2N21c  Association.     Celebration 

West  Cage  on  July  k,   1865  by  the 

Colored  people. 


LINCOLN  ROOM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


.       

CELEBRATION 


COLORED    PEOPLE'S 


IN    MEMORY    OF 


FOURTH    OF    JULY,    1865, 


PRESIDENTIAL    GROUNDS, 

WASHINGTON,   D.    C. 


PRINTED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS. 
L.  A.  BELL,  Recording  Secretary. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  : 

McQILL  &  WITHEROW,  PRINTERS  AND  STEREOTYPERS. 
1865. 


II  E>  RARY 

OF   THL 

U  NIVER.SITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 


West 


CELEBRATION 


COLORED    PEOPLE'S 


IN    MEMORY    OF 


Lucre  o  LOST, 


FOURTH    OF    JULY,    1865, 

IN    THE 

PRESIDENTIAL    GROUNDS, 

WASHINGTON,    D.    C. 


PRINTED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS. 
L.  A.  BELL,  Recording  Secretary. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  : 
McGILL  &  WITIIEROW,  PRINTERS  AND  STEREOTYPERS. 

1865. 


( 


THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1865. 


The  Fourth  of  July,  1865,  was  indeed  a  memorable 
day,  being  the  first  time  that  the  colored  people  have 
attempted  any  celebration  of  a  national  character.  The 
celebration  was  gotten  up  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Colored  People's  National  Lincoln  Monument  Associa- 
tion, whose  eiforts  have,  in  this  respect,  been  crowned 
with  the  full  measure  of  success.  Thousands  were 
present  on  the  grounds  throughout  the  entire  day.  The 
Washington  City  Sabbath  School  Union  were  present  in 
great  numbers,  with  many  banners,  flags,  mottoes,  and 
devices,  forming  one  of  the  chief  features  of  the  cele- 
bration. Many  distinguished  persons  were  present; 
including  senators,  representatives,  members  of  the  judi- 
ciary, officers  of  the  Government  and  officers  of  the 
army  and  navy.  Promptly  at  twelve  o'clock,  Mr.  J.  F. 
Cook,  who  presided  throughout  the  day,  called  the  vast 
assemblage  to  order  and  introduced  Elder  D.  W.  Ander- 
son, pastor  of  the  Nineteenth  street  Baptist  Church,  who 
opened  the  exercises  of  the  day,  with  the  following 
impressive  prayer : 

0  Lord,  we  have  assembled  here  to  day,  to  celebrate  the 
Eighty-ninth  Anniversary  of  our  nation's  Independence.  We 
have  sinned  against  Thee,  0  Lord,  for  the  past  eighty-five  years, 
until  thy  wrath  kindled  hot  against  us,  and  confused  the  coun- 
cils of  this  great  people.  At  length  the  thunderbolts  of  war  were 
hurled  by  one  portion  against  the  other  of  these  once  united 
States.  And  now,  Lord,  for  the  past  four  years,  we  have  been 
butchering  each  other,  until  now  that  the  backbone  of  the  slave- 
mongers'  rebellion  is  broken,  we  stand  before  Thee,  0  God,  a 
nation  redeemed  by  the  commingled  blood  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
and  the  Anglo-African  races,  poured  out  like  water  upon  many 
battle-fields.  Remember  in  kindness,  0  God,  the  widow  and  the 


orphans  of  our  martyred  President ;  and,  0  God,  place  thy  finger 
upon  the  heart  of  his  successor ;  and  give  him  light  to  see  that 
there  are  constitutional  rights  for  loyal  men  who  are  so  by  nature, 
as  well  as  for  those  who  are  made  so  by  the  taking  of  an  oath 
which  they  hate.  Fold  thy  wings,  0  Lamb  of  God,  around  the 
great  American  Statesman,  whose  heart  is  now  bereaved  of  his 
loved  one,  who  has  fallen  another  victim,  whose  tender  soul  could 
not  bear  the  shock,  caused  by  the  ring  of  the  assassin's  knife, 
trying  in  fury  to  murder  her  dear  husband.  May  the  echo  of  her 
heavenly  song  fall  with  comforting  accents  upon  his  soul  through 
all  his  useful  life.  0  Lord,  there  are  with  us,  before  Thee  to- 
day, wise  and  tried  senators,  generals  of  the  army  and  officers  of 
the  Government.  Bless  them,  0  Lord,  with  the  desire  and 
hearts  to  perform  all  the  duties  devolving  upon  them  well.  May 
the  wrongs  committed  on  the  weak  and  defenceless  of  all  colors 
be  speedily  redressed.  May  thy  blessings  be  abundantly  poured 
upon  all  the  schools,  Sunday  and  weekly.  Make  them,  0  God, 
potent  engines  for  this  long  oppressed  people.  Fold  thy  wings  in 
peace  around  this  vast  assembly,  this  day.  Lead  our  common 
country  by  thine  own  hand  in  the  path  of  her  duty;  and  when 
she  has  accomplished  her  mission  among  the  family  of  nations, 
receive  all  her  prepared  children  into  the  Paradise  of  God.  AMEN. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  then  read  by  JOHN  F. 
COOK,  in  a  loud  and  clear  voice. 

Mr.  COOK  then  announced  that  the  committee  had  received  a 
number  of  letters,  which  he  read.  They  are  as  follows : 

LETTER  OF  GOV.  ANDREW. 

COMMONWEALTH  OF  MASSACHUSETTS, 

EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,   BOSTON,  July  1,  1865. 
Messrs.   WM.  SYPHAX    and  JOHN  F.  COOK,  Committee  of  Colored  Citizens, 

Washinffton,  D.  C.  : 

GENTLEMEN  :  Your  invitation  of  the  28th  ult.  has  been  gratefully  re- 
ceived, and  I  should  be  happy  to  accept  it,  if  it  were  possible  for  me  to  be 
ia  Washington  on  the  occasion  of  the  anniversary  of  our  National  Inde- 
pendence. I  trust  your  meeting  will  be  an  honorable  exhibition  of  the 
intelligence,  good  taste,  and  good  judgment  of  those  by  whom  it  will  be 
conducted,  and  will  tend  to  increase  the  confidence  of  all  Americans  in 
the  capacity  of  their  colored  fellow-countrymen  to  share  in  the  duties  and 
all  the  rights  of  citizenship.  For  myself,  I  am  sure  that  equal  right  and 
impartial  liberty  will  yet  be  accorded  to  all  who  own  this  for  their  country 
and  home.  I  am  sure  that  no  rule  or  doctrine  less  fundamental  will  be 
tolerated  hy  that  grand,  consprvative  sense,  always  prevalent  at  last. 
Let  despots  and  slaves  demand  despotism  or  submit  to  it — there  is  logic 
in  their  doing  so— but  let  freemen  accept  no  place  nor  franchise  as  an 
order  of  privilege,  nor  permit  it  to  another. 

I  am,  respectfully,  yours,  JOHN  A.  ANDREW. 


LETTER  O*1  REV.  JOSHUA  LEAVITT. 

NEW  YORK,  June  30,  1865. 
Messrs.  WILLIAM  STPHAX  and  JOHN  F.  COOK,  Committee,  $c.  : 

GENTLEMEN  :  You  are  right  in   the  belief  that  I  feel  a  deep  and  long 
cherished  interest  iu   everything  that  may  aid  my  brethren  and  fellow- 
countrymen  of  African  lineage  in  developing  their  patriotism  and  promo- 
ting the  spread  of  intelligence  among  themselves.     Your  invitation  to  be 
present   at   the '  great   Lincoln   Monument   meeting   on  the  4th  gives  me* 
great  pleasure,  as  showing  that  I  cannot  be  forgotten  in  my  old  age  ;   but  " 
unfortunately  it  came  after  I  had  engaged  to  be  present  at  a  meeting 
among  my  native  hills  in  Massachusetts  ;  and  the  request  for  a  notice  in  • 
the  Independent  comes  too  late,  as  the  paper  for  this  week  was  already 
printed. 

I  wish  you  much  success  in  your  laudable  undertaking.  The  Anglo- 
Africans  of  this  country  have  now  their  destiny  in  their  own  hands.  The 
struggle,  if  brave  and  persevering,  is  the  very  thing  to  develop  their  man- 
hood, and  their  very  hardships  train  them  to  be  worthy  of  freedom.  It 
is  the  way  my  Pilgrim  Fathers  were  made  what  they  were,  and  they  bore 
cheerfully  all  their  trials  for  the  sake  of  preparing  what  we  enjoy.  A 
race  of  people  that  can  live  for  their  children  and  for  posterity  cannot 
but  become  great. 

I  remain,  gentlemen,  your  true  friend, 

JOSHUA   LEAVITT. 


LETTER    FROM    FREDERICK    DOUGLASS. 

ROCHESTER,  July  1,  1865. 
Messrs.  WILLIAM  SVPHAX  and  JOHN  F.  COOK  : 

GENTLEMEN  :  Accept  my  best  thanks  for  your  note  of  28th  June,  invit- 
ing me  to  be  present  at  your  proposed  celebration  of  the  4th,  in  Washing- 
ton. Had  your  note  come  a  few  days  earlier,  I  might  have  been  able  to 
.  mingle  my  voice  with  those  who  shall  participate  in  the  commemoration 
of  the  birthday  of  freedom  at  the  Capital.  As  the  matter  now  stands,  I 
can  only  send  you  the  assurance  that  I  shall  be  with  you  in  spirit  and 
purpose. 

The  one  thought  to  be  emphasized  and  deeply  underscored  on  that 
occasion  is  this  :  The  immediate,  complete,  and  universal  enfranchise- 
ment of  the  colored  people  of  the  whole  country.  This  is  demanded  both 
by  justice  and  national  honor.  Besides,  it  is  the  only  policy  which  can 
give  permanent  peac^and  prosperity  to  the  country.  The  great  want  of 
the  country  is  to  be  rid  of  the  negro  question,  and  it  can  never  be  rid  of 
that  question  until  justice,  right,  and  sound  policy  are  complied  with. 
I  hope  the  able  men  who  will  speak  on  the  occasion  of  your  celebra- 
tion will  show  that  the  prophecy  of  1776  will  not  be  fulfilled  till  all 
men  in  America  shall  stand  equal  before  the  laws. 
Yours,  very  truly, 

FRED'K   DOUGLASS. 


LETTER   FROM    GEN.    FREMONT. 

NEW  YORK,  July  3,  1865. 

Messrs.  WM.  SYPHAX  and  JOHN  F.  COOK.  Committee,  $c.,  Washington  City : 

GENTLEMEN  :  I  have   to   thank   you   for   an    invitation  to  take  part  in 

your  proceedings  of  to-morrow,  and  regret  that  I  am  unable  to  accept  it. 


It  is  of  great  public  interest  just  now  to  kn«w  what  your  own  opinion 
and  purposes  are,  and  what  you  yourselves  think  it  expedient  and  practi- 
cable to  do  in  promoting  the  welfare  of  your  people.  Apart  from  this, 
old  acquaintance  with  a  number  of  your  best  citizens  in  the  District 
would  have  made  it  very  agreeable  to  me  to  be  present  upon  an  occasion 
of  so  much  interest  to  yourselves  and  your  friends.  You  may  feel  assured 
that  it  will  give  general  satisfaction  to  learn  that  you  propose  to  make 
education  your  corner-stone  on  which  to  rest  the  social  and  political 
^standing  of  your  people.  United  and  comprehensive  effort  will  give  you 
an  equally  comprehensive  success,  for  which  I  use  the  occasion  to  offer 
you  my  best  wishes. 

Yours,  truly,  J.  C.  FREMONT. 


LETTER    FROM    REV.    WM.    H.    CHANNING. 

WASHINGTON.  D.  C.,  U.  S.  A., 
THE  JUBILEE  OF  P'REEDOM,  July  4,  1865. 

Eev.  H.  H.  GARNETT,  President :  Messrs.   WM.  J.  WILSON,  Louis  A.  BELL, 
Secretaries  of  the  National  Lincoln  Monument  Association  : 
GENTLEMEN  :  You  have   done   me   the   honor  to  elect  me  as  one  of  the 
Directors  of  your   Association.     On    this    Sabbath  day    of  our   nation's 
freedom — the  day  consecrated  to  the  principles  of  universal  brotherhood — 
the  day  which  is  the  pledge  of  equal  rights  and  privileges  in    human  so- 
ciety on  earth  for  all  who  are  welcomed  to  be  co-heirs  in  glory  together 
in  our  Father's  home  in  Heaven — my  first  act  shall  be  to  accept  the  office 
which  you  iiave  conferred,  and  to  promise  you   my  cordial,  fraternal  co- 
operation. 

Trusting  that  the  National  Lincoln  Monument  Association  may  be  one 
effectual  means  of  enabling  the  colored  people  of  the  District  of  Columbia 
and  the  whole  republic  to  prepare  for  and  to  fitly  use  what  God  and  the 
Gospel  of  Christ,  and  the  spirit  and  the  essential  principles  of  this  nation 
assure  their  perfect  right  and  duty  to  claim,  namely:  PEERAGE  IN  ALL 
THE  PRIVILEGES  OF  CHRISTIAN  CITIZENSHIP,  I  remain,  with  cordial  re- 
gard and  respectful  best  wishes,  your  friend  and  brother, 

WILLIAM  HENRY  CHANNING. 


LETTER  FROM  HON.  GERRIT  SMITH. 

PETERBORO 'July  1,  1865,  Saturday,  P.  M. 
Messrs.  WM.  SYPHAX  and  JOHN  F.  CooiT:  , 

GENTLEMEN  :  Not  until  now  do  I  receive  your  esteemed  letter  of  th'e 
28th  instant.  I  wish  I  could  be  with  you  on  the  important  and  interest- 
ing occasion  which  you  invite  me  to  attend,  but  I  cannot  be. 

Suffrage  for  the  black  man  !  Our  nation  cannot  be  saved  so  long  as  it 
is  withheld. 

With  great  regard,  your  friend, 

GERRIT  SMITH. 


LETTER    FROM    WM.    C.    BRYANT,    ESQ. 

ROPLYN,  LONG  ISLAND,  July  4,  1865. 

GENTLEMEN:  Your  obliging  invitation  of  the  28th  of  June  did  not 
come  to  my  hands  until  last  evening,  so  that  my  answer  could  not  reach 
you  until  some  time  after  your  celebration.  1  cannot,  however,  allow  the 


occasion  to  pass  without  congratulating  the  colored  race  on  being  able  to 
celebrate  the  Fourth  of  July  as  freemen  and  citizens  of  this  republic,  and 
to  express  my  confident  hope  that  the  day  is  near  when  they  will  be  ad- 
mitted to  an  equality  of  political  privileges  with  the  white  race,  through- 
out the  whole  extent  of  the  United  States. 

I  am,  gentlemen,  with  great  regard,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  C.  BRYANT. 
Messrs.  W.  SYPHAX  and  JOHN  F.  COOK. 


LETTER  FROM  COLONEL  FORNEY. 

PHILADELPHIA,  July  3,  1865. 

GENTLEMEN:  Your  letter  dated  June  29,  sent  from  Washington  to  thisv 
city,  only  reached  me  yesterday,  the  2d  of  July.  My  presence  here  will 
prevent  me  from  being  in  Washington  to-morrow.  I  cannot,  however, 
after  thanking  you  for  your  kind  invitation,  refrain  the  expression  of  my 
gratification  that  the  colored  citizens  of  Washington  intend  to  celebrate 
the  coming  ludependence  Day  on  the  grounds  of  the  Presidential  Man- 
sion, with  the  free  consent  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Republic.  It 
is  a  fitting  finale  of  the  great  struggle  in  which  your  race  displayed  such 
noble  valor,  and  a  fine  illustration  of  the  long-neglected  pledges  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  that  you  should  commemorate  emancipation 
in  the  Capital  of  the  nation,  and  that  that  Capital  is  no  longer  the  ren- 
dezvous or  the  citadel  of  slavery.  May  your  meeting  at  the  next  anni- 
versary of  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  find  you  as  free  to  vote  in  the  city  of 
Washington  as  you  were  ready  to  fight  for  it. 

Your  friend  and  fellow-citizen,  J.  W.  FORNEY. 

Messrs.  W.  SYPHAX  and  JOHN  F.  COOK,  Esqs.,  Committee. 


LETTER  FROM  JUDGE  KELLEY. 

PHILADELPHIA,  June  30,  1865. 

Messrs.  WM.  SYPHAX  and  JOHN  F.  COOK,   Committee  : 

DEAR  SIRS  :  Your  favor  of  the  28th  instant,  on  behalf  of  the  colored 
citizens  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  came  to  hand  to-day.  I  am  rejoiced 
at  learning  that  President  Johnson,  who  is  no  less  a  lover  of  mankind 
than  M^IS  his  illustrious  and  lamented  predecessor,  has  given  you  permis- 
sion to  again  assemble,  and  celebrate  our  country's  natal  day,  on  the 
beautiful  grounds  appurtenant  to  the  Executive  Mansion.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  emotions  with  which  I  looked  upon  you  from  the  windows 
of  that  building,  on  last  4th  of  July,  and  contrasted  your  condition  with 
what  it  had  been  when  I  first  took  my  oath  as  a  member  of  Congress, 
precisely  three  years  before.  Many  of  you  were  then  slaves — things  to 
be  bought  and  sold  and  scourged  by  capricious  and  irresponsible  masters 
or  their  agents — and  all  were  subject  to  the  infamous  provisions  of  the 
"Black  Code."  Now,  outside  of  Kentucky  and  Delaware,  no  slave  cow- 
ers beneath  freedom's  flag ;  and  you  may  rejoice  that  millions  of  your 
kinsinen,  whose  position  was  doubtful,  but  a  short  time  ago,  are  in  the 
enjoyment  of  assured  freedom. 

The  determination  of  the  colored  citizens  to  erect  and  endow  an  institu- 
tion of  learning,  as- a  testimonial  of  their  regard  for  the  memory  of 
President  Lincoln,  is  wise  and  commendable.  Let  your  liberal  contribu- 


tions  attest  your  gratitude.  Your  ability  to  acquire,  manage,  and  dispose 
of  property,  and  your  wish  to  escape  from  that  ignorance,  which,  though 
enforced,  is  made  a  pretext  by  those  who  have  constrained  you  to  it,  for 
withholding  from  you  some  of  the  most  cherished  attributes  of  American 
citizenship.  Let  it  be  your  self-imposed  duty  and  your  pride  to  erect  and 
endow  it,  but  let  its  utility  be  not  limited  to  the  descendants  of  any  clime 
or  country — let  no  prescriptive  feature  mar  its  organization — but  let  the 
descendants  of  the  once  proscribed  boast  that  their  ancestors,  in  erecting 
a  monument  to  their  benefactor,  founded  an  institution  to  bless  mankind. 
I  notice  with  pleasure  the  fact  that  President  Johnson  had  advised  a  dep- 
utation of  you  to  prepare  to  ask  Congress  at  the  next  session  to  invest  those 
of  you  who  reside  permanently  in  the  District,  with  the  right  of  suffrage. 
Do  not  let  your  proposed  assemblage  disperse  till  you  shall  have  made 
arrangements  to  carry  this  suggestion  into  effect.  The  Declaration  which 
you  will  read  tells  you  that  in  rights  all  men  are  equal — that  govern- 
ments are  instituted  to  protect  those  rights — and  that  the  only  founda- 
tion for  a  just  government  is  the  consent  of  the  governed;  and  I  am 
certain  that  the  Congress  which  will  assemble  on  the  first  Monday  of  the 
coming  December  will  neither  deny  nor  violate  these  fundamental 
and  "  self-evident  "  truths.  I  cannot  be  in  Washington  as  you  desire,  on 
Tuesday  next;  but  I  beg  you  to  remember  then  and  always  that  you  are 
men,  and  as  American  citizens  are  entitled  to  the  enjoyment  of  all  the 
rights,  and  bound  to  the  performance  of  all  the  duties  of  men. 
Very  truly,  your  friend, 

WILLIAM  D.  KELLEY. 


LETTER  FROM  HON.  JOHN  G.  PALFREY. 

BOSTON  POST  OFFICE,  July  3,  1865. 

Messrs.   WM.  SYPHAX  and  JOHN  F.  COOK,  Committee,  $c.,  fyc.,  $c.,  Wash- 
ington, D.  G.  : 

GENTLEMEN  :  I  regret  very  much  that,  in  consequence  of  my  absence  on 
a  journey  to  Virginia,  your  highly  gratifying  invitation  did  not  reach  my 
hands  in  season  to  admit  of  even  a  timely  acknowledgment  of  it. 

I  seize  the  earliest  moment  to  say  that,  feeling  an  interest  the  most 
profound  in  the  objects  of  your  Association,  I  extremely  regret  not  to  be 
able  to  testify  my  sentiments  by  being  present  on  tHe  occasion  to  which 
you  do  me  the  flattering  honor  of  inviting  me.  May  the  righteous  and 
good  Being  who  directs  all  events,  and  prospers  all  worthy  and  generous 
endeavors,  give  life  and  guidance  and  a  successful  issue  to  your  counsels 
for  the  elevation  of  your  long-suffering,  much  injured,  and  meritorious 
race,  and  put  it  into  the  hearts  of  our  rulers  and  fellow-citizens  of  every 
class  to  welcome  you  speedily  and  cordially  to  a  full  possession  of  the 
rights  of  which  so  deplorably  you  have  been  deprived.  The  country  and 
humanity  owe  a  great  debt  to  those  whom  you  represent.  The  sooner  we 
acknowledge  and  pay  it,  the  sooner  shall  we  secure  our  self-respect  and 
peace  of  mind. 

With  every  sentiment  of  friendly  regard,  and  with  hearty  thanks  for 
your  kind  notice,  pray  believe  me,  gentlemen, 

Your  earnest  well-wisher  and  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  G.  PALFREY. 


LETTER  FKOM  HON.  SALMON  P.  CHASE,  CHIEF  JUSTICE  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

WAKEFIELD,  R.  I.,  Aug.  16,  1865. 

GENTLEMEN  :  Your  letter,  of  the  28th  ult.,  reached  me  here,  after  some 
delay.  I  did  not  receive  your  invitation  to  the  celebration  on  the  4th,  or 
I  should  have  thanked  you  for  it  earlier.  I  enclose  a  letter  which  ex- 
presses my  sentiments.* 

To-morrow  morning,  I  shall  be  in  Washington,  if  nothing  unforeseen 
shall  prevent. 

Yours  truly,  S.  P.  CHASE. 

Messrs.  WILLIAM  SYPHAX  and  J.  F.  COOK,  Committee. 


LETTER,    FROM    THE    HON.  CHARLES    SUMNER. 

BOSTON,  MASS.,  July  16th,  1865. 

Gentlemen  :  Owing  to  my  absence  from  town,  I  did  not  receive  your 
letter  in  season  to  answer  it,  for  your  celebration ;  but  I  am  unwilling  to 
leave  it  unanswered. 

You  are  right  in  commemorating  the  memory  of  the  late  President,  and 
I  am  glad  that  you  are  turning  your  attention  to  an  institution  of  educa- 
tion. The  idea,  alone,  is  honorable ;  but  I  trust  you  will  be.  able  to 
reduce  it  to  practice. 

The  time  is  at  hand  when  your  rights  will  be  universally  recognized, 
and  nobody  will  venture  to  assert  any  difference  in  political  privileges, 
founded  on  color.  You  must  prepare  yourselves  for  this  condition 

Meanwhile,  I  counsel  patience,  and  confidence  in  the  President,  who 
has  told  you  that  he  will  be  "  Your  Moses."  The  people  of  the  North 

*  NEW  ORLEANS,  June  6,  1865. 

GENTLEJ&N:  I  should  hardly  feel  at  liberty  to  decline  the  invitation  you  have  tendered 
me  in  behalf  of  the  loyal  colored  Americans  of  New  Orleans,  to  speak  to  them  on  the  subject 
of  their  rights  and  duties  as  citizens,  if  I  had  not  quite  recently  expressed  my  views  at 
Charleston,  in  an  address,  reported  with  substantial  accuracy,  and  already  published  in  one 
of  the  most  widely  circulated  journals  of  this  city.  But  it  seems  superfluous  to  repeat 
them  before  another  audience. 

It  is  proper  to  say,  however,  that  these  views,  having  been  formed  years  since,  on  much 
reflection,  and  confirmed,  in  a  new  and  broader  application,  by  the  events  of  the  civil  war 
now  happily  ended,  are  not  likely  to  undergo,  hereafter,  any  material  change. 

That  native  freemen,  of  whatever  complexion,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States;  that  all 
men  held  as  slaves  in  the  States  which  joined  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States  have 
become  freemen  through  executive  and  legislative  acts  during  the  war ;  and  that  these 
freemen  are  now  citizens,  and  consequently  entitled  to  the  rights  of  citizens,  are  proposi- 
tions which,  in  my  judgment,  cannot  be  successfully  controverted.  And  it  is  both  natural 
and  right  that  colored  Americans,  entitled  to  the  rights  of  citizens,  should  claim  their  ex- 
ercise. They  should  persist  in  this  claim  respectfully,  but  firmly,  taking  care  to  bring  no 
discredit  upon  it  by  their  own  action.  Its  justice  is  already  acknowledged  by  great  num- 
bers of  their  white  fellow  citizens,  and  these  numbers  constantly  increase. 

The  peculiar  conditions,  however,  under  which  these  rights  arise,  seem  to  impose  on  those 
who  assert  them  peculiar  duties,  or  rather  special  obligations  to  the  discharge  of  common 
duties.  They  should  strive  for  distinction  by  economy,  by  industry,  by  sobriety,  by  patient 
perseverance  in  well-doing,  by  constant  improvement  in  religious  instruction,  and  by  the 
constant  practice  of  Christian  virtues.  In  this  way  they  will  surely  overcome  unjust  hos- 
tility, and  convince  even  the  most  prejudiced  that  the  denial  to  them  of  any  right  which 
citizens  may  properly  exercise,  is  equally  unwise  and  wrong. 

Our  national  experience  has  demonstrated  that  public  order  reposes  most  securely  on  the 
broad  basis  of  universal  suffrage.  It  has  proved,  also,  that  universal  suffrage  is  the  surest 
guarantee  and  most  powerful  stimulus  of  individual,  social,  and  political  progress.  May 
it  not  prove,  moreover,  in  that  work  of  re-organization  which  now  engages  the  thoughts  of 
all  patriotic  men,  that  universal  suffrage  is  the  best  reconciler  of  the  most  comprehensive 
lenity  with  the  most  perfect  public  security  and  the  most  speedy  and  certain  revival  of  gen- 
eral prosperity? 

Very  respectfully,  yours,  S.  P.  CHASE. 

Messrs.  J.  B.  ROUDANEZ,  L.  Qois,  and  L.  BANKS,  Committee. 
2 


10 


will  be  "  Your  Moses,"  also  ;  for  the  people  are  determined  that  you  shall 
be  protected  in  that  ''•Equality  before  the  Law"  which  is  one  of  the  prom- 
ises of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The  next  Congress  cannot  fail 
in  this  transcendent  duty. 

Accept  my  best  wishes,  fellow-citizens,  and  believe  me,  faithfully  yours, 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 

Messrs.  WILLIAM  SYPHAX  and  JOHN  F.  COOK. 


ORATION  BY  WM.  HOWARD  DAY,  M.  A. 

Mr.  Wm.  Howard  Day,  of  New  York,  a  young  colored  man, 
was  the  first  speaker,  and  delivered  an  address,  of  which  we  give 
a  curtailed  report  below,  revised  by  the  author. 

Mr.  Day  delivered  his  address  in  an  easy  and  unrestrained 
manner,  which  lent  an  additional  interest  to  his  subject.  While 
there  was  apparent  the  dignity  of  a  man  addressing  his  fellow- 
men  upon  vital  questions  of  interest,  there  was  an  entire  absence 
of  declamation  for  mere  effect.  We  feel  convinced  that  we  shall 
hear  more  of  this  gentleman  hereafter.  He  is  a  fine  specimen  of 
what  a  colored  man  can  be  made  by  culture  and  education.  He 
commenced  by  expressing  the  natural  diffidence  he  felt  in  at- 
tempting to  address  an  audience  composed,  as  he  declared  it  to 
be,  of  gentlemen  among  the  first  in  the  list  of  honor  and  fame  of 
America ;  and  in  this  connection  he  paid  a  graceful  tribute  to 
some  of  the  gentlemen  present;  the  ladies  also  received  en  passant 
grateful  and  heartfelt  acknowledgment  of  their  devotion  and 
earnestness  in  behalf  of  an  oppressed  and  persecuted  people,  in 
defiance  of  the  obloquy  and  scorn  which  had  confronted  but  not 
confounded  them. 

He  said  they  had  met  to-day,  inspired  by  the  noble  sentiments 
they  had  heard  enunciated  in  the  glorious  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, viz :  "  That  all  men  were  created  free  and  equal,  and 
with  inalienable  rights  common  to  all."  They  were  also  inspired 
with  the  glorious  sentiments  in  that  noble  motto,  that  "  Right  is 
of  no  sect,  truth  is  of  no  color,  God  is  the  Father  of  us  all."  This 
is  what  we  are  here  for  to-day — to  recognize  those  principles ;  and 
(continued  he)  while  we  are  here  united,  not  to  do  homage  to 
each  other,  but  to  the  liberty  which,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
has  been  accorded  to  us  after  eighty-nine  years  of  travel  through 
the  wilderness.  We  meet  under  new  and  ominous  circumstances 
to-day.  We  come  to  .the  National  Capital — our  Capital— with 
new  hopes,  new  prospects,  new  joys,  in  view  of  the  future  and 
past  of  the  people;  and  yet  with  that  joy  fringed,  tinged,  perme- 
ated by  a  sorrow  unlike  any,  nationally,  we  have  ever  known.  A 
few  weeks  since  all  that  was  mortal  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was 


11 


laid  away  to  rest.  And  to-day,  after  the  funeral  cortege  has 
passed,  weeping  thoughts  march  through  our  hearts — when  the 
muffled  drum  has  ceased  to  beat  in  a  procession  five  hundred,  aye, 
two  thousand  miles  long,  the  chambers  of  your  souls  are  still 
echoing  the  murmur — and  though  the  coffin  has  been  lowered 
into  its  place,  "  dust  to  dust,"  there  ever  falls  across  our  way  the 
coffin's  shadow,  and,  standing  in  it,  we  come  to-day  to  rear  a  mon- 
ument to  his  blessed  memory,  and  again  to  pledge  our  untiring 
resistance  to  the  tyranny  by  which  he  fell,  whether  it  be  in  the 
iron  manacles  of  the  slave,  or  in  the  unjust  written  manacles  for 
the  free. 

I  know  not  how  better,  in  your  name,  I  can  lay  my  humble 
tribute  upon  his  grave — I  know  not  better  how  I  can  weave  my 
wreath  around  his  memory,  than  by  dedicating  to  him  what  I 
wrote  in  England  on  the  death  of  Prince  Albert,  the  husband  of 
England's  Queen.  They  were  each  a  peer  of  the  other — both 
princes  here,  and  both,  to-day,  princes  in  the  Home  Eternal. 

The  Times  said  :  "  Quietly  and  without  suffering  he  continued 
slowly  to  sink,  so  slowly  that  the  wrists  were  pulseless  long  before 
the  last  hour  had  arrived,  when,  at  a  few  minutes  before  eleven, 
he  ceased  to  breathe — and  all  was  over.  An  hour  after,  and  the 
solemn  tones  of  the  great  bell  of  St.  Paul's — a  bell  of  evil  omen — 
told  all  citizens  how  irreparable  has  been  the  loss  of  their  beloved 
Queen — how  great  the  loss  to  the  country." 

Toll  1  toll  the  solemn  bell !  The  air 
Is  heavy  with  the  sighs  of  death ; 

The  spirits  of  the  dead  are  there 

And  bear  a  brother  spirit  where 

Amid  the  heavenly  glories  rare, 
It  may  put  on  its  glory-wreath. 

Then  toll  the  bell !  in  answer  to 

The  "  Death-Bell "  ringing  in  our  ears, 

Until  the  spirit  which  we  knew 

Shall  enter  through  the  ether  blue 

And  don  its  dress  for  service  new, 
Invisible  for  earth  in  tears. 

Aye,  toll  the  bell  !  for  back  they  come, 

Witn  strength  renewed  and  pinions  bright, 

To  sing  within  the  earthly  home 

The  song  they  caught  in  heaven's  high  dome, 

Strains  from  the  old,  unwritten  tome 
Of  melody  by  saints  in  light. 


12 


And  let  us  listen  to  the  SONG. 

The  tolling  bell  its  notes  will  hush 
In  the  world's  bustle ;  and  the  wrong    . 
Of  night  and  day  will  clamor  long 
For  life,  and  falsity,  its  gong, 
Will  sound,  the  discords,  chief  among — 

But  o'er  all  still  the  sweet  song  rush. 

Until  the  dead  bell's  sound 

Shall  come  again  re-ringing, 
And  Earth's  lost  song  be  found, 

And  she  again  come  singing. 

Mr  DAY  then  proceeded  to  give  a  succinct  account  of  the  in- 
troduction of  slavery  in  America,  quoting  "  facts  and  figures " 
with  a  fluency  that  showed  he  was  perfectly  master  of  the  position. 
In  this  connection  he  said : 

Two  hundred  and  forty  years  ago  two  spectacles  were  to  be 
seen  in  this  land;  one,  the  advent  of  a  band  of  freemen,  landing 
upon  Plymouth  Rock,  in  New  England ;  the  other,  the  coming 
of  a  company  of  slaves  landed  at  Jamestown,  Virginia.  Both  of 
these  parties  had  crossed  the  ocean,  the  one  willing,  the  other 
unwilling.  On 3  professedly  escaping  oppression  and  seeking  lib- 
erty, the  other  seized  and  sold  into  what  was  to  be  to  them 
eternal  bondage ;  so  that  the  shout  of  the  freeman  and  the  wail 
of  the  bondman  were  heard  together  here,  forming  a  duet,  the 
echoes  of  which  still  linger,  and  which,  to-day  even,  we  may  hear 
from  certain  portions  of  our  land,  coming  over  the  waters  near  us, 
asking,  appealing,  beseeching  for  sympathy.  As  the  prow  of  the 
Mayflower,  which  bore  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  over,  scraped  upon 
the  Rock  of  Plymouth,  we  heard  from  the  deck  of  the  vessel  a 
shout  of  "  Freedom  to  worship  God,"  which  comes  to  us  to-day 
with  the  gathered  strength  of  two  hundred  years,  as  the  fore- 
runner, the  John  the  Baptist  of  "  Freedom  for  Humanity."  And 
therefore  the  fitness  of  that  wail  coming  up  from  the  old  prison- 
house,  freighted  with  miseries  unutterable,  and  appealing  to  us  by 
the  humane  ties  linking  us  to  each,  and  the  golden  tie  binding  us 
to  the  heart  of  God,  that  we  listen  to  and  aid,  as  we  are  able. 

Nearly  three  hundred  \ears  then,  slavery  has  been  in  existence 
upon  American  soil.  A  thing  of  convenience  at  first,  it  grew  as 
convenience  demanded.  In  the  accidental  whirling  of  this 
social  world,  servants  became  a  necessity ;  these  twenty  slaves, 
thus  brought,  became  permanent  ones.  Habit  gave  it  character. 
It  became  honorable  to  import  slaves  for  sale,  so  that  from  1607, 
to  1776,  the  number,  twenty,  had  become  five  hundred  thousand. 

It  was  then  that  there  was  sent  forth  upon  the  wings  of  the 


13 


wind  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  read  to-day;  one  of  the 
greatest  documents  the  world  has  ever  seen — great,  with  reference 
to  the  occasion  which  brought  it  forth — great,  with  respect  to 
humanity,  in  all  coming  time.  Not  that  the  doctrine  of  Liberty 
or  Equality  has  not  been  before  proclaimed.  It  had  been  an- 
nounced— it  had  been  believed.  It  had  been  proclaimed  from 
amidst  the  unapproachable  darkness  of  Sinai,  where  the  Deity, 
with  his  finger  dipped  in  flame,  wrote  himself  Anti-Slavery — "  I 
am  the  Lord  thy  God,  which  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  Thou  shalt  have  no  other 
gods  before  me."  And  the  sixteenth  verse  of  the  following  chap- 
ter makes  Him,  who  said — "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by 
man  shall  his  blood  be  shed,  for  in  the  image  of  God  made 
he  man,"  also  to  say — "  He  that  stealeth  a  man  and  selleth  him, 
or  if  he  be  found  in  his  hand,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death  •" 
thus  making  the  right  to  life  and  the  right  to  liberty  paramount 
and  inalienable.  Passing  to  the  New  Testament  Scripture,  and 
spanning  the  Scripture  like  a  rainbow,  Jesus  proclaimed  it  when 
he  said,  "  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them."  St.  Peter  thundered  it  forth  upon  the  ear  of 
the  haughty  Jew — "  Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that  God  is  no  respecter 
of  persons ;"  and  Paul  attested  the  love  lie  had  for  liberty,  by 
saying — "  I  would  to  God,  that  not  only  thou,  but  also  all  that 
hear  me  this  day  were  both  almost  and  altogether  such  as  I  am, 
except  these  bonds,"  And  thus  that  voice  has  been  going  around 
the  world  as  on  a  wave  of  fire,  licking  up  the  despotisms  of  the 
world ;  and  yet,  as  in  this  land,  stooping  to  whisper  to  the  bleed- 
ing bond-man,  Thou  thyself  art  also  a  man — come  upon  the  plat- 
form designed  for  thee  by  thy  Creator. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  not,  therefore,  a  new 
enunciation.  Yesterday,  the  New  York  World  was  discussing 
the  Declaration,  and  attributed  it,  I  understand,  to  Locke  and 
Bacon,  the  English  philosophers.  I  reply,  Locke  and  Sydney  and 
Bacon  were  defenders  of  the  principle,  but  that  principle  Jived 
and  breathed  and  burned  in  the  hearts  of  individuals  and  nations 
long  before  Locke  and  Sydney  and  Bacon  were  born.  They  were, 
therefore,  only  the  voices  of  the  men  of  their  age,  who  thought. 
The  principle  was  God-breathed,  and  was,  therefore,  merely  God's 
voice,  wrought  into  fundamental  law.  The  same  principle  thrilled 
through  the  heart  of  many  nations  before  us,  and  was  by  some  of 
them  pronounced  even  more  decidedly  than  by  us. 

Mr.  DAY  then  glanced  at  the  struggles  for  the  principles  of 
freedom  in  the  Old  World,  and  presented  an  interesting  epitome 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  Italian,  and  Swiss  history,  alluding,  inci- 
dentally to  Martin  Luther  and  the  Reformed  Church  party  in 
England,  and  returned  to  the  principles  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.- 


14 


and  their  effects  on  the  destiny  of  this  country.  He  showed  how, 
in  a  republican  government,  the  elective  franchise  is  a  necessary 
outgrowth  of  this  civil  liberty. 

This  religious  and  civil  liberty  laid  the  foundations  of  this 
nation. 

It  was  the  right  of  each  individual  man  to  worship  his  God  as 
his  conscience  might  dictate. 

It  was  the  right  of  each  native-born,  individual  man  to  be 
included  in  the  nation's  interest,  except  that  right  had  been  for- 
feited by  crime. 

Up  to  now  our  nation,  following  England's  example,  has  been 
ploughing  with  an  ox  and  an  ass  together.  The  shout  of  the  free- 
man and  the  wail  of  the  bondman  have,  I  repeat,  always  been 
heard  together,  making  "  harsh  discords."  Hitherto  a  damning 
crime  has  run  riot  over  the  whole  land.  North  and  South  alike 
were  inoculated  with  its  virus.  It  has  lain  like  a  gangrene  upon 
the  national  life,  until  the  nation,  mortified,  broke  in  twain.  The 
hand  of  slavery  ever  moulded  the  Christianity  of  the  nation,  and 
wrote  the  national  songs.  What  hand  wrote  the  laws  of  the  na- 
tion and  marked  this  National  District  all  over  with  scars?  What 
hand  went  into  the  Capitol  and  half  murdered  Charles  Sumner, 
nature's  nobleman  ?  What  hand  fought  its  way  into  the  sick 
chamber  and  attempted  the  lingering  life  of  our  Secretary  of 
State  ?  What  hand  murdered  the 

"dearest  friend,  the  kindest  man," 

as  President,  we  ever  knew  ? 

It  did  not  grow  strong  all  at  once,  but  grew  with  the  nation's 
growth,  and  then  attempted  the  nation's  life. 

Why  was  this?  To  crush  your  manhood.  To  belie  the  doc- 
trine which  we  meet  to-day  to  celebrate,  namely  :  that  "  Man  is 
man,  and  no  man  is  more." 

My  friend,  the  President  of  the  Association,  (the  Rev.  Mr. 
Garnet,)  and  I,  have  met  in  the  Old  World,  in  the  presence  of 
tyrannies ;  and,  in  our  humble  spheres,  we  there  did  what  we 
could  to  lessen  their  power.  Especially  did  we  invite  the  op- 
pressed there  to  follow  the  star  of  empire  westward,  to  the  lands 
which  God  keeps  for  the  poor,  and  which  stretch  away  and  away 
"  to  the  distant  West,"  even  to  the  threshold  of  the  golden  gates 
which  close  upon  the  footsteps  of  the  god  of  day.  But  even 
then,  though  they  came  by  thousands,  thousands  still  remained, 
the  surface  of  society  constantly  upheaved  by  the  beatings  of  the 
hearts  beneath  it.  Our  hearts  were  saddened,  for  tyranny  there 
was  a  power.  But  we  returned  to  our  own  land,  this  home  of 
freedom,  to  find  a  despotism,  in  one  sense,  worse  than  any  other 
we  had  met.  No  other  despotism  that,  by  sturdy  blows,  was 


15 


ever  made  to  slough  its  unctuous  skin,  was  ever  so  vigorous, 
ever  so  extended,  or  even  so  vigorously  mean  and  malignant. 
Its  toadies,  like  a  pestilence,  skipped  all  over  the  land.  Its  min- 
isters, like  their  prototype  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  crawled  up 
into  the  sacred  desk  and  left  their  slime  all  over  the  blessed 
Bible  and  its  pages.  Honorable  exceptions  were  there  of  men 
who  always  spoke  forth  for  truth  and  justice — for  God  and  human- 
ity. The  result  of  such  a  union  in  meanness  was  felt,  like  the 
lice  of  Egypt,  everywhere — in  the  sugar  which  sweetened  our 
coffee — in  the  edibles  indigenous  South — in  the  cotton  thread 
which  seamed  our  clothing — in  the  inner  and  outer  garments 
to  protect  from  the  cold — in  the  tobacco  weed  of  the  tobacco 
worm — everywhere  they  met  us,  these  products  of  a  system  which 
cooly  calculated  how  long  it  would  take  to  work  up  the  flesh,  the 
sinews,  the  bones,  the  blood,  the  mind,  the  soul  of  man;  that 
stripped  off  MANHOOD,  and  left  them  standing,  the  trembling, 
naked  hulk  of  THINGHOOD.  That  was  despotism  ;  that  was  Amer- 
ican despotism. 

Four  years  ago  this  power  drove  you  to  seek  protection  of  mon- 
archy. This  power  forbade  you  a  safe  resting-place  anywhere 
within  the  borders  of  this  broad  land.  To-day  you  stand  erect, 
and  the  system  which  oppressed  you  has,  by  the  providence  of 
God  and  the  hand  of  war,  been  sent  reeling  to  its  grave.  The 
wave  of  blood,  which  for  two  hundred  years  has  been  sweeping 
over  you  and  your  interests,  has,  in  the  providence  of  God,  been 
set  backward,  and  for  four  years  past  it  has  been  sweeping  through 
the  hearts  and  homes  of  the  nation.  Out  of  half  a  million 
hearts  and  homes  those  bloody  waves  have  swept  the  brightest 
jewels  God  ever  gave  to  poor  human  beings,  swept  and  buried 
them  out  of  sight  forever,  until  He  shall  come  to  take  them  up 
and  make  them  His  jewels.  On  these  successive  waves  of  blood, 
rising  higher  and  higher,  year  by  year,  the  colored  man  has  been 
borne  on  and  up  to  freedom,  and  must  be  borne  onward  still,  to  full 
enfranchisement. 

We  have  heard  (said  Mr.  DAY)  a  great  deal  recently  of  the  gal- 
lant bravery  displayed  by  the  colored  man;  but,  continued  the. 
speaker,  the  present  time  is  not  the  first  in  which  the  prowess  of  the 
black  man  has  been  evinced.  It  was  displayed  in  the  Revolution- 
ary war,  in  1812  and  1815,  on  many  memorable  occasions,  and  he 
has  ever  been  earnest  and  faithful  to  the  country  My  father,  on 
the  waters  of  Lake  Champlain,  mingled  his  blood  in  the  moun- 
tain wave  that  has  burst  upon  our  coast  on  behalf  of  American 
liberty,  and  upon  which  our  ship  of  state  is  being  tossed  to-day, 
but  which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  I  do  not  doubt  its  riding 
safely  through.  Even  the  slave-masters  of  the  South  were  not 
backward  in  acknowledging  the  bravery  of  the  "negro  boys,"  in 


16 


the  war   of   1812.      "You  know,"    he   remarked   humorously, ' 
"slavery   has   no    eyes   wherewith   to  recognize    manhood    in    a 
slave." 

The  orator  referred  to  the  efforts  of  American  slaves  to  be  free, 
showing,  he  said,  that  the  idea  of  liberty  was  constantly  nursed 
by  them.  That  however  we  might  regard  the  efforts  to  be  free, 
the  men  had  evinced  that  love  of  liberty  which  had  made  heroes 
in  every  age.  Coming  to  the  country  at  the  same  time  with  the 
Pilgrims  of  Liberty,  it  was  fitting  that  the  colored  man  should 
unite  with  the  Pilgrims,  in  the  war  of  the  Kevolution,  the  war  of 
1812-15,  and  the  late  war,  in  order  to  rescue  this  land  from  the 
dominion  of  bondage.  It  is  fitting  and  proper  that  they  should 
meet  here  and  march  forward  to  freedom,  for,  as  yet,  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers'  idea  is  not  on  its  feet.  The  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence is  not  yet  fairly  carried  out,  nor  will  it  be,  until,  in  ev- 
ery corner  of  the  land,  the  black  man,  as  well  as  the  white,  is 
permitted  to  enjoy  all  the  franchises  pertaining  to  citizens  of  the 
United  States  of  America. 

When  Nathaniel  Turner  arose,  the  whole  South  trembled. 
When  the  Camden  insurrection  took  place,  the  slaveholders, 
though  armed  and  prepared,  were  surprised  by  the  plans,  and 
afterwards  awed  by  the  bearing  of  the  despised,  overborne  black 
men — slaves.  [Mr.  Day  detailed  the  circumstances,  related  to 
him  by  a  slaveholder.]  And  the  slaveholders  thought  they  had 
quenched  all  the  ideas  of  liberty,  because  they  mangled  the 
bodies  and  took  the  lives  of  these  struggling  men.  Nay,  nay  ! 
Liberty,  continued  he,  is  not,  flesh  and  blood.  As  Bulwer  says  of 
Opinion,  so  of  this.  Anything  else  they  may  destroy.  They 
may  conquer  wind,  water,  nature  itself,  but  to  the  progress  of  this 
secret,  subtle  element  their  imagination  can  devise,  their  strength 
accomplish,  no  bar.  Chains  cannot  bind  it,  for  it  is  immaterial — 
nor  dungeons  enclose  it,  for  it  is  universal.  All  the  heroes  of  all 
the  ages,  bond  and  free,  have  labored  to  secure  for  us  the  right 
we  rejoice  in  to-day.  To  the  white  and  colored  soldiers  of  this 

ar,  led  on  as  they  were  by  our  noble  President  and  other  officers, 
in  the  presence  of  some  of  whom  I  rejoice  to-day,  are  we  indebted, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  for  our  present  position.  For  want  of 
time,  I  pass  by  any  more  detailed  mention  of  the  noble  men  and 
their  noble  deeds.  Together  they  nobly  labored — together  they 
threw  themselves  into  the  breach  which  rebellion  had  made  across 
the  land,  and  thus  closed  up  that  breach  forever.  And  now,  in 
their  presence,  living  and  dead,  as  over  the  prostrate  form  of  our 
leader,  Abraham  Lincoln — by  the  edge  of  blood-red  waves,  still 
surging,  we  pledge  our  resistance  to  tyranny,  (I  repeat,)  whether 
in  the  iron  manacles  of  the  slave,  or  in  the  unjust  written  mana- 
cles of  the  free. 


17 


How  best  can  we  evince  our  gratitude,  and  make  good  our 
pledge  ?  By  acquirements  in  knowledge.  We  remember  the 
aphorism  of  a  great  writer,  in  the  play  of  King  Henry  VI : 

"Ignorance  is  the  curse  of  God — 
Knowledge  the  wing  whereby  we  fly  to  Heaven." 

Knowledge,  religious,  intellectual,  social.  This  Lincoln  Monu- 
mental Institute  is  a  fitting  memorial.  It  will  be  an  additional 
monument  of  the  colored  people's  gratitude,  of  the  colored  man's 
industry,  of  the  colored  man's  executive  ability,  of  the  colored 
man's  brains,  of  the  colored  man's  fitness  for  every  duty  and 
every  privilege. 

Let  it  rise  as  our  wing  of  the  new  temple  of  freedom.  Afr  its 
altar  let  genius  minister.  There  let  benisons  be  pronounced  from 
the  heart  of  a  rising  race.  There  let  the  riches  of  learning  be 
brought,  ready  to  be  laid  on  the  knee  and  in  the  lap  of  every 
colored  child  in  the  land.  Let  solid  floors  echo  the  patterings  of 
a  thousand  feet,  all  going  up,  up,  up  through  the  dawn  to 
a  brighter  morning.  Let  the  niches  in  your  gallery  here  be 
filled  with  the  white  figures  of  Lincoln,  and  Stanton,  and  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  and  Garrison,  and  Gerrit  Smith,  and  John  Brown, 
and  Chase,  and  Seward,  and  many,  many  others ;  but  let  them 
also  glisten  with  those  of  "  God's  image  cut  in  ebony."  I  repeat, 
let  the  Institute  rise  on  our  wing  of  the  new  temple  of  freedom. 
The  old  temple  was  the  temple  of  despotism.  Its  height  insult- 
ingly rose  to  heaven ;  its  huge  windows,  shrouded  in  blackness, 
made  visible  the  ghosts  of  even  Christian  priests  at  the  altar; 
while  before  that  altar  was  waving  the  smoking  blood  of  inno- 
cent human  victims.  Its  tapestry  were  the  sinews  of  a  crushed 
humanity.  Its  inner  walls  were  stuccoed  with  the  bones  of  the 
millions.  Its  angels,  glistening  in  the  sunbeam,  were  bedewed 
with  diamonds  of  the  first  water,  the  crystal  tears  *>f  the  worse 
than  widow  and  the  more  than  orphan ;  while,  drop  by  drop,  the 
blood  had  made  the  rill,  the  rill  the  river,  the  river  the  sea,  until, 
drop  by  drop,  its  flood,  instinct  with  life,  rose  up  and  demanded 
repentance  and  justice,  or  retribution.  Retribution  came  in  the 
hand  of  God. 

It  is  related  in  the  diary  of  one  of  the  writers  of  old  that  when 
the  slave  trade  was  at  its  height,  a  certain  vessel  loaded  with  its 
human  freight  started  under  the  frown  of  God  and  came  over  the 
billows  of  the  ocean.  Defying  God  and  man  alike,  in  the  open 
daylight,  the  slave  was  brought  up  from  the  hold  and  chained  to 
the  foot  of  the  mast.  The  eye  of  the  Omnipotent  saw  it,  and 
bye  and  bye  the  thunders  muttered  and  the  lightnings  played 
over  the  devoted  vessel.  At  length  the  lightning  leaped  upon 
the  mast  and  shivered  it,  and,  as  it  did  this,  also  melted  the  fetter 
3 


18 


•which  fastened  the  black  slave  to  it ;  and  he  arising  unhurt,  for 
the  first  time  walked  the  deck  a  free  man. 

Our  ship  of  state,  the  Union,  has  for  eighty  years  gone  career- 
ing over  the  billows ;  our  slave  has  been  chained  to  our  mast  in 
the  open  daylight,  and  in  the  focal  blaze  of  the  eighteen  centu- 
ries gone  by.  and  we  have  hurried  on  in  our  crime  regardless  alike 
of  the  muttering  of  the  thunder  and  the  flashes  of  the  lightning, 
until  in  one  devoted  hour  the  thunderbolt  was  sped  from  the 
hand  of  God.  The  mast  was  shivered  ;  the  ship  was  saved  ;  but, 
thank  God,  the  slave  was  free.  The  monument  we  rear,  there- 
fore, to  Abraham  Lincoln  is  a  monument  to  liberty.  Here  will 
it  stand  on  the  edge  of  fathomless  waters,  a  beacon  forever.  Bis- 
ing'up  against  the  dark  sky  behind,  its  burning  light  will  cheer 
many  a  home  now  desolate;  and,  reflected  across  the  dark  waste 
around  us,  will  be  crystalized  by  hearts  there  into  solid  joy. 
Thus  we  shall  gather  in  the  youth,  and  thus,  copying  this  Insti- 
tution's effective  example,  we  may  each  do  duty  for  a  race.  We 
may  not  be  a  life-boat  to  go  out  upon  the  billows  to  save,  but,  in 
the  language  of  my  Scotch  friend,  Rev.  Dr.  Guthrie,  we  may 
each  be  a  bell-rock  tower,  standing  erect  amid  the  stormy  waters, 
where,  during  the  day,  the  bell  was  rung,  where  during  the  night 
the  fire  was  kindled,  so  that  men  are  not  saved  from  the  wreck, 
but  saved  from  being  wrecked  at  all,  and 

"Your  name  and  praise, 
Which,  in  these  slavish  days, 

So  many  vainly  dream  are  soon  to  perish, 
As  in  the  coming  age 
They  shine  on  history's  page, 

The  proud  shall  envy  and  the  good  shall  cherish.''' 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  oration,  which  was  received  with 
frequent  bursts  of  applause,  the  venerable  John  Pierpont,  whose 
name  is  so  dear  to  every  intelligent  household  in  America,  rose 
and  delivered,  with  great  effect,  the  following  spirited  poem, 
abounding  with  rare  gems  of  thought,  and  with  racy  humor. 

LET   THERE   BE   LIGHT. 

From  the  beginning  the  Eternal  Cause 

Hath  wrought  according  to  eternal  laws — 

Laws  on  Himself  imposed ;  and  His  almight 

Gives  and  obeys  his  law —  "  Let  there  be  light !" 

His  great  antagonist,  the  Evil  One, 

Says,  as  his  first  command,  "Put  out  the  sun!" 


19 


As  poor  Othello,  jealous  of  his  wife, 

Loving,  yet  goade.d  on  to  take  her  life, 

Steals  in,  his  hand  upon  his  dagger's  handle  — 

But  finds  himself  unable  while  the  candle 

Its  beautifying  beams  upon  her  throws, 

Showing  such  loveliness  in  such  repose, 

Steps  back,  o'erpowered,  as  would  most  other  men — 

And,  shaking,  says,  "Put  out  the  light,"  and  then — 

"  I  cannot  kill  her  when  I  see  my  mark  ; 

But  I  can  do  it  if  the  room  is  dark!" 

So  is  it  with  all  servants  of  the  devil  : 

They  shun  the  light  because  their  deeds  are  evil. 

'Twas  thus  with  Booth.     The  murderer  came  by  night, 

Skulked  up  unseen,  though  all  around  was  light, 

And,  when  the  deed  was  done— the  warm  blood  spilt — 

Plunged  into  darkness,  friendly  to  his  guilt. 

Thus  hath  it  been  since  man  first  slew  his  brother  : 

Darkness  and  wrong  have  courted  one  another. 

The  courtship  ends  in  wedlock;  then  begins 

The  large  and  fertile  family  of  sins. 

The  lazy  loafer,  when  nought  else  is  left, 

Must  "stay  his  stomach  upon  fraud  or  theft ;" 

The  swindler  will,  of  course,  the  fraud  deny  ; 

And  every  theft  is  pregnant  with  a  lie  ; 

Then  lie  kills  lie  whene'er  they  meet  abroad 

And  fraud  expires,  stabbed  by  a  sharper  fraud. 

The  burglar  cuts  his  brother  burglar's  throat, 

And  picks  his  pocket  of  a  spurious  note, 

Which  he  palms  off  to  pay  a  gambling  bet, 

Or  bilks  his  butcher  of  an  honest  debt. 

To  such  expedients  knaves  resort,  to  shirk 
God's  first  commandment —  "Thou,  to  live,  must  work.' 
Thanks  for  God's  word  to  Adam  when  He  said, 
"  Thou  with  a  sweating  face,  shalt  eat  thy  bread." 
Many  there  are  who  deem  this  word  a  curse, 
Thinking,  than  labor  there  is  nothing  worse, 
A  blessed  curse,  if  curse  we  can  it  call, 
That  in  this  sentence,  followed  "  Adam's  fall." 
Yet  man,  short-sighted  man,  has  madly  striven 
To  avert  this  blessing  of  benignant  Heaven. 
Has  sought  the  plensures  and  the  power  of  wealth, 
By  crafty  artifice,  by  fraud,  or  stealth, 
To  get  his  bread  by  some  ingenious  plan, 
Or  by  the  sweating  face  of  some  more  honest  man. 


20 


The  stronger  savage,  aye,  his  task  will  shirk, 
And  make  the  weaker  woman  do  hii  work. 
The  conquering  soldier  came,  in  time,  to  yield 
Part  of  his  trophies  of 'the  battle-field; 
Money,  not  mercy,  prompted  him  to  save 
His  captive's  life,  and  sell  him  as  a  SLAVE  ! 
Hence  feuds  were  fanned  to  flame,  and  wars  were  waged, 
Hosts  rushed  to  conflict  and  the  battle  raged, 
Not  that  each  chief  his  foeman's  blood  might  spill ; 
His  aim  to  capture,  rather  than  to  kill. 
The  victor  spared  the  foe  he  might  have  slain, 
Tied  him  with  thongs  or  bound  him  with  a  chain, 
And  kept  him  toiling  in  his  field  or  fold, 
Or  to  another  gave  him  up  for  gold. 
Thus  Slavery  came,  by  God  and  man  abhorred, 
Its  ugly  parents — avarice  and  the  sword. 
Its  only  office,  that  hard  work  he  shun, 
Whereby  all  glory,  all  true  wealth  are  won. 
To  real  greatness  man  is  never  born. 
Nor  yet  do  idle  hands  fill  Plenty's  horn. 
The  leaky  craft,  just  on  destruction's  brink, 
Says  to  the  seaman,  "  Work  your  pump  or  sink  !" 
The  frozen  field,  beneath  whose  surface  lie 
Undug  potatoes,  says,  "Root  hog,  or  die  !  " 
And  the  first  law  by  God  imposed  on  man 
Which,  we  have  seen,  in  Paradise  began, 
Imposed  to  shield  the  race  from  want  and  vice, 
And  which,  obeyed,  makes  earth  a  paradise, 
Is  clearly  stated  by  the  Apostle  Paul, 
In  terms  that  must  be  understood  by  all ; 
And  which,  in  one  line  we  will  here  repeat : 
"  Who  will  not  labor,  neither  let  him  eat." 
Slavery,  reversing  this  divine  command, 
Lifts  to  insulted  heaven  her  lily  hand, 
Waving  her  sword  or  brandishing  her  dirk, 
And  swears  that  she  will  neither  starve  nor  work  ; 
And  hence  has  striven  this  ordinance  to  fix, 
For  all  the  last  four  thousand  of  the  six 
Of  our  bright  planet's  periods  round  the  sun, 
Since  man  on  earth  his  race  began  to  run, 
Namely :  "  Regardless  of  the  right  or  wrong, 
"  The  weak  shall  labor  to  support  the  strong. 
"  Who  labors  not  shall  live  on  finest  wheat, 
"  Who  labors  not  shall  feast  on  fattest  meat. 


21 


"  Who  fats  and  kills  the  ox,  his  bones  may  gnaw  ; 
"  Who  sows  and  reaps  the  wheat,  may  eat  the  straw  ; 
"  The  idlest  hands  shall  stuff  the  busiest  jaws ; 
"  These  are  my  fixed,  my  fundataental  laws." 

What  is  the  good  wherewith  this  code  is  fraught  ? 
What  are  the  blessings  slavery  hath  brought  ? 
Ay,  where,  in  the  wide  field  that  she  has  trod, 
And  o'er  it  plied  her  shackles  and  her  rod, 
Hath  not  this  fiend  left  traces  of   her  hand, 
Diffused  her  blight,  and  pressed  her  burning  brand  ? 
Where  hath  she  brought  a  single  blessing  ?     Where 
A  sweeter  flower,  or  a  more  balmy  air  ? 
More  richly  robed  the  earth  in  golden  corn, 
Sung  holier  hymns  to  heaven  at  even  or  morn, 
Or  with  more  fruits  filled  Amalthea's  horn  ? 

Ancient  Dominion,  where  the  bondman's  tread, 
First  on  our  shores  was  felt,  life  up  thy  head  ! 
Thy  loving  arms  were  first  around  him  thrown, 
In  thine  embrace  he  loosed  thy  virgin  zone. 
Closest  and  longest  to  thy  bosom  prest, 
Thou'st  held  the  laboring  bondman  to  thy  breast, 
Lift  up  thy  head — once  proud, — and  show  thy  race 
What  are  the  fruits  of  that  long,  close  embrace  ! 
What  did  the  bondman  find  thee  when  ye  met  ? 
What  hath  he  left — he  hath  not  left  thee  yet. 

He  found  thee  fairest  of  the  sister  train  : 
Thy  broad  deep  rivers  rolling  to  the  main  ; 
From  the  wood-crowned  Blue  Ridges,  that  divide 
Ohio's  waters  from  the  ocean  tide ; 
Thy  valleys,  fertile  as  the  fields,  that  smile, 
In  green  and  gold,  along  the  ancient  Nile. 
Thy  hill  sides,  dark  with  naval  oaks  and  pines, 
And  teeming  with  their  coal,  and  iron  mines  ; 
Thy  waterfalls,  echoing  among  those  hills, 
And  clamorous  for  employment  on  thy  mills, 
That  from  the  thundering  car  and  groaning  wain, 
Would  take  thy  sacks,  bursting  with  golden  grain, 
And,  with  their  arms  unwearied,  fill  with  bread 
Each  lordly  mansion  and  each  humble  shed, 
That  its  blue  wreath  of  smoke  would  ever  send 
Up  to  the  genial  skies,  that  o'er  thee  bend  ; 
While,  in  thine  inland  sea,  their  sails  unfurled, 
Might  ride  secure  the  navies  of  the  world. 


22 


Such  was  thy  beauty,  such  thy  noble  dower, 
Couched,  as  a  queen,  beneath  thy  leafy  bower, 
In  thy  rich  robes  of  flowers  and  foliage  dressed, 
By  balmy  breezes  lovingly  caress'd, 
Thou  fairest,  richest,  proudest  of  the  States, 
When,  to  the  slave,  thou  openedst  first  thy  gates. 

What  hath  been  wrought  upon  thee  by  his  hand  ? 
Thy  wasted  forests,  thine  exhausted  land, 
Thy  fields  unfenced,  thy  cattle  few  and  lean, 
Thine  ancient  mansions  fall'n,  thy  new  ones  mean, 
Thy  broad-leaved,  poisonous  plant  that  shades  thy  soil, 
And  makes  the  laborer  languish  at  his  toil, 
The  withering  flowers  that  deck  thy  faded  face, 
Lazy  unthrift,  and  labor  in  disgrace, 
These  show  the  world, — and  they  may  read  who  run — 
The  work  that  thy  blind  slaves,  and  lords  more  blind,  have  done. 

Ancient  Dominion,  have  I  done  thee  wrong  ? 
Say'st  thou  my  colors  are  laid  on  too  strong  ? 
Then  will  I  gladly  lay  my  pencil  down, 
And  trust  thou  wilt  not  blast  me  with  thy  frown 
If  I  exhibit  of  thy  blighted  land, 
Thy  portrait  painted  by  a  friendly  hand. 
The  great  Missourian's  picture  thou  shalt  see  ; 
Thou  knew'st  him  well,  and  well  did  he  know  thee. 

Missouri's  Senator,  well  known  to  Fame, 
Whom  some  "the  Old  Roman,"  some  "  Old  Bullion"  name, 
Thus  paints  thy  land  along  Potomac's  side, 
Near  where  Virginia's  and  the  Nation's  pride, 
Thrice  honored  lived,  and  long-lamented,  died. 

"Throughout  this  region,  long  by  slavery  cursed, 
Behold  man's  progress  upon  earth  reversed. 
Backwards  and  downwards  everything  goes  on  : 
Houses  delapidated,  tenants  gone. 
Where  once  were  crowds  there  now  is  ample  room  ; 
Fields,  fertile  once,  are  now  grown  up  with  broom. 
No  crops,  no  fences  now  the  plains  adorn  ; 
Grass  and  pine  saplings  take  the  place  of  corn. 
As  men  grow  scarce,  wild  beasts  more  frequent  prowl, 
The  fox  grows  bolder,  oftener  hoots  the  owl, 
And  hungry  wolves  are  heard  more  savagely  to  howl. 
The  tenant's  lot,  who  here  puts  in  his  seed, 
Is  hopeless,  is  deplorable  indeed ; 
In  vain  does  he  solicit,  day  by  day, 
Gravel  and  grit  and  still  more  heartless  clay. 


23 


The  corn  and  oats,  that  man  and  horse  demand, 
He  brings  not  from  these  fields  of  pine  and  sand. 
Not  long  ago,  I  passed  this  region  o'er, 
My  journey  lay  along  Potomac's  shore, 
As  the  broad-bosomed  river  gently  sweeps, 
Near  where  the  Father  of  his  Country  sleeps. 
Eiding  along  the  rough  highway,  and  thinking, 
I  know  not  what — as  Horace  says* —  a  clinking 
I  heard  among  the  stones,  on  the  hillside. 
I  checked  my  horse,  and,  looking  up,  espied 
Some  negro  laborers  hoeing  with  their  hoes, 
Digging  small  holes,  in  equidistant  rows, 
And  burying  something  in  them.     So  I  cried 
'  What  are  you  doing  there  ?'     A  slave  replied — 
'We're  planting  corn,  sir,  in  these  gravel  beds.' 
'  What  plant  ye  with  it  ?'     Answer,  '  Herring  heads.' 
'  Why  plant  ye  herring  heads  with  corn  ?'  said  I. 
'  To  make  the  corn  come  up,'  was  the  reply. 
Again  I  asked,  '  How  many  heads  do  you 
Plant,  to  each  grain  of  corn?'     He  answered,  'Two.' 
'  Well,  how  high  grows  it,  thus  manured,  I  beg?' 
'About  so  high,'  measuring  upon  his  leg  !" 
Mother  of  Presidents,  once  haughty  land, 
Behold  thy  portrait  by  a  master's  hand ! 

One  artist  more  depicts  thy  state  forlorn  ; 
Native  is  he,  and  "  to  the  manner  born." 
His  handiwork  may  fascinate  thine  eyes  ; 
High-born  is  he,  and  nominally  Wise. 
Stumping  the  State  its  highest  chair  to  gain, 
And,  history  tells  us,  stumping  not  in  vain, 
This  limner,  true  to  nature,  thus  bewails 
His  mother's  fate  :   "  Commerce  her  fickle  sails 
Long  since  has  spread  and  sailed  from  you  away; 
Plowing  no  more  the  bosom  of  your  bay; 
Your  coal  minus,  richer  than  are  mines  of  gold, 
Remain  undug,  till  your  own  hearths  are  cold. 
Your  iron  foundries  wait  impatient  for 
Trip-hammer,  such  as  Vulcan  wields,  or  Thor. 
Nor  of  your  coarsest  cotton,  do  you  spin 
Enough  to  hide  your  negroes'  naked  skin. 
Of  commerce,  manufactures,  arts,  bereft, 
Nought,  but  the  culture  of  your  ground,  is  left. 

*  Nescio  quid  meditans. — Sbr. 
I 


24 


And  such  a  culture !    He  that  owns  the  fee 

Leases  his  land,  and  skins  the  poor  lessee  ; 

The  poor  lessee,  by  his  unskilful  toil, 

Takes  his  revenge,  and  skins,  in  turn,  the  soil. 

Instead  of  farms,  where  each  his  acres  tills, 

Then  cattle  feeding  upon  clovered  hills, 

We  see  the  landlord's  hireling  overseer, 

His  hunger  whetted  to  its  keenest  edge, 

For  a  tough  steak,  chasing  his  stump-tailed  steer, 

Through  swamps  undrained,  and  patches  rank  with  sedge." 

Such  was  Virginia,  stripped  of  all  disguises, 

As  painted  by  the  wisest  of  her   Wises. 

To  that  low  point  had  slavery  brought  down 
Proud  old  Virginia  ere  she  hanged  John  Brown ; 
And  the  same  cause,  that  wrought  Virginia's  fall, 
Was,  like  the  cholera,  sweeping  over  all, 
That  sat  in  darkness,  on  the  plains  that  spread 
'Twixt  Rio  Grande's  and  Potomac's  bed, 
Where  Abel  tilled  the  ground  and  Cain  eat  up  the  bread. 
Brown  saw  Virginia  as  she,  languid  stood, 
In  her  slave  shambles  selling  her  own  blood, 
And  would  have  freed  her  laborer  from  his  chains, 
And  clothed  with  verdure  her  old  naked  plains  ; 
But  she  would  still  on  her  destroyer  doat, 
And  hug  the  vampyre  closer  to  her  throat, 
Till,  as  her  pulses  faint  and  fainter  throb, 
Finding  that  she  must  either  die  or  rob, 
She  bargains  with  her  sisters,  who  combine, 
Such  as  fair  Flora  and  warm  Caroline, 
To  lay  their  hands  on  all  that  they  can  get 
To  eat  at  leisure  and  not  pay  the  sweat. 

The  boldest  backwoods  hunter  justly  fears 
The  hungry  wolf,  he  holds  but  by  the  ears. 
Seeing  his  hold's  so  weak,  the  brute  so  strong, 
That,  without  help,  he  cannot  hold  him  long, 
And  fearing  that,  if  he  lets  go,  his  grim 
And  wide-mouthed  game  will  soon  make  game  of  him, 
Calls  on  his  fellow-huntsmen  for  their  help, 
In  keeping  down  and  mastering  the  whelp ; 
And  if  his  neighbors  come  not  at  his  call, 
He  grows  profane,  and  swears  he'll  whip  them  all ; 
So  our  man-hunters,  grappling  with  a  foe, 
They  scarce  can  hold,  and  dare  not  let  him  go, 
Call,  in  their  terror,  upon  Northern  smiths 
And  woodmen,  for  new  fetters  and  green  withes, 


25 


To  bind  their  shaggy  Sampson  in  his  mill, 

To  help  them  hold,  and  keep  him  grinding  still, 

Nor  him  alone,  his  children  must  they  bind, 

Build  them  more  mills  wherein  his  boys  may  grind, 

Purchase  new  acres  at  their  proper  cost, 

Get  new  Virginias  for  them  to  exhaust, 

Throw  up  new  dykes  'gainst  Freedom's  overflow 

And  to  her  surges  say  "  No  farther  go  !  " 

And  now,  forsooth,  because  those  neighbors  stand, 

Look  calmly  on,  and  lend  no  helping  hand, 

To  their  demand  for  aid,  make  no  reply, 

Or,  coolly  say  "  We've  our  own  fish  to  fry ; 

"  Good  friends,  we're  weary  of  this  thankless  task, 

i.  \ve've  given  you  more  than  you've  a  right  to  ask  ; 

l<  'Till  now,  we've  helped  you  in  your  time  of  need, 

"  Conceded  till  we  can  no  more  concede, 

"  Done  for  you  all  that  should  or  will  be  done, 

"  So,  hold  your  wolf  yourselves,  or — let  him  run" — 

Our  Nimrods — mighty  hunters — grow  profane, 

Break  Three  commandments,  take  God's  name  in  vain, 

Steal  from  their  neighbors,  till  they've  stolen  their  fill, 

And  then,  proceed  to  bully  and  to  kill. 

And  that  is  War !     But  War,  that  burns  and  blights, 
God  makes  his  minister,  and  clothes  with  rights : 
The  right  a  bond-man's  fetters  to  unclasp, 
To  wrest  the  sceptre  from  a  rebel's  grasp, 
And  say,  "  Lay  down  your  cow-skin  and  your  dirk, 
"  And  take  your  choice,  sir,  starve,  or  go  to  work!  " 

This  said  the  man,  raised  up  and  sent,  through  grace, 
To  be  "  a  prince  and  savior  "  of  a  race  ; 
A  race  long  doomed  to  servitude  and  scorn; 
But  through  this  Prince's  word,  to  freedom  born. 
The  man  to  whom  the  bloody  nand  of  War 
Brought  the  commission,  so  long  waited  for, 
"Deliverance  to  the  captives"  to  proclaim, 
Like  him  whose  name  "  is  above  every  name." 
For  him  a  Nation's  eyes  with  tears  are  dim : 
He  slavery  slew,  then  slavery  murdered  him. 
But,  in  a  race  redeemed,  he  made  his  mark 
On  History's  page.     But  that  race,  0  how  dark — 
Wrhen  darkness  covered  all  the  cloud- wrapped  land, 
And  the  Oppressor  laid  his  heaviest  h£nd, 
Upon  its  eye-balls,  to  "put  out  the  light" 
Of  hope  and  science  from  both  soul  and  sight — 
4 


26 


Must  it  now  be,  when  from  its  "long  despair," 
Brought  out  to  feel  the  sun,  and  breathe  the  upper  air! 

Father  of  lights  !  for  these,  thy  children,  long 
Held  in  the  dark,  by  robbery  and  wrong, 
Held,  groping  on  in  more  than  Egypt's  night, 
Hear  we  not  now  thy  word  "  Let  there  be  light  ?  " 
For  them  did'et  Thou  a  great  Deliverer  raise, 
For  him  we  all  now  offer  Thee  our  praise  ; 
And,  that  his  name  may  never  be  forgot, 
Would  his  redeemed  ones,  near  the  holy  spot, 
Where  his  great  word  went  forth,  and  where  he  fell, 
Build  up  a  monument,  the  world  to  tell, 
The  gratitude,  that  all,  who  now  are  free, 
Should  feel,  and  do  feel  both  to  him  and  Thee. 
Not  such  a  monument  us  Egypt's  kings 
Built  for  their  bones  ;  but  such  a  one  as  brings 
Out,  from  the  hidings  of  oblivion's  veil, 
The  hallowed  name  of  Harvard  or  of  Yale ; 
Within  whose  shadow,  thirsty  youths,  who  think, 
With  Solomon,  that  "  light  is  sweet,"  may  drink, 
From  the  sweet  fountain  Thou  hast  made  o'erflow 
From  all  thy  works,  above,  around,  below 
Fountain  of  Knowledge,  that,  like  thine  own  grace, 
Debars  no  color,  and  excludes  no  race, 
Where  every  child  may  see  that,  every  hour 
He's  gaining  knowledge,  he  is  gaining  power; 
The  power  to  labor  for  the  common  weal ; 
To  soothe  some  grief,  some  malady  to  heal ; 
And,  by  example,  to  make  all  men  see, 
That  it  is  best  for  all,  that  all  men  should  be  free. 

Our  Lincoln  Monument  of  One  shall  speak, 
Like  Moses  faithful,  and  like  Moses  meek  ; 
Who  led  thy  people  through  a  redder  sea 
Than  Israel  passed,  to  light  and  liberty. 
Of  him,  who,  humbly  trusting  in  the  Lord, 
Moved  by  thy  Holy  Spirit,  spake  thy  word ; 
And,  as  that  word  was  plainly,  firmly,  spoken, 
The  bond-man's  chains  fell  off,  the  tyrant's  rod  was  broken. 

The  Honorable  HENRY  WILSON,  United  States  Senator  from 
Massachusetts,  was  then  introduced  to  the  audience  as  the  author 
of  the  bill  to  abolish^slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  also 
of  the  bill  to  abolish  the  black  laws  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
The  eloquent  words  of  this  distinguished  Senator  seemed  to  send 


27 


an  electric  thrill  through  the  vast  crowd;  and  their  joy,  as  he 
gave  utterance  to  assurances  the  most  cheering,  seemed  at  times 
to  know  no  bounds.  He  spoke  as  follows: 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Citizens  of  the  United  States : 
When  I  left  my  home  in  Massachusetts,  I  intended  to  spend  this 
hallowed  day  among  the  graves  of  the  brave  men  who  fell  at  Get- 
tysburg, in  aiding  to  consecrate  a  monument  to  the  heroes  of  the 
"  grand  old  Army  of  the  Potomac,"  who  there  fronted  the  legions 
of  the  rebellion,  and  there  broke  the  power  of  treason  forever  in 
America.  (Cheers.)  Business — not  yet  completed — forced  me 
to  spend  the  day  in  the  National  Capital,  and  I  came  here  to  meet 
free  men,  and  listen  to  the  words  of  humanity,  of  justice,  and  of 
liberty.  I  have  listened  to  an  orator  of  your  own  race,  and  I  say 
to  you,  that  within  the  broad  limits  of  the  North  American  Re- 
public, there  will  be  few  speeches  uttered,  to-day,  superior  to  the 
one  he  addressed  to  you.  I  have  listened,  too,  to  the  voice  of 
one,  that  for  more  than  thirty  years  in  my  own  Massachusetts,  I 
have  been  accustomed  to  listen  to  and  admire.  I  can  hardly  hope, 
after  you  have  listened  to  such  utterances,  to  say  anything  that 
will  add  to  the  joy  of  the  grand  occasion;  but  as  you  have  asked 
me  to  say  a  word,  I  will  not  shrink  from  saying  it.  (Applause.) 
Here,  to-day,  in  the  capital  of  my  country,  surrounded  by  this 
throng  of  my  fellow  citizens,  black  and  white,  I  say — and  if  my 
voice  could  reach  to  the  Rio  Grande,  I  would  utter  it — that  slavery 
is  dead  and  buried  forever.  ("  Thank  God  !  "  Applause.)  And 
I  say  further — and  I  want  you  to  remember  and  carry  it  to  your 
homes,  to-night,  and  tell  it  to  your  neighbors,  and  let  it  go  from 
neighbor  to  neighbor  across  the  continent — that  the  freedmen  of 
the  United  States  shall  be  protected  in  all  their  rights.  (Immense 
cheering.)  Slavery  has  robbed  your  cradles ;  it  shall  rob  them 
no  more.  (Applause.)  Slavery  has  sold  your  children  ;  it  shall 
sell  them  no  more.  (Cheers.)  Slavery  had  its  auction  blocks; 
they  are  gone  forever.  Slavery  had  its  bloodhounds ;  they  shall 
bay  on  the  track  of  your  race  no  more.  (Loud  and  continued 
cheering.) 

Let  the  late  slave-masters  understand  this.  Let  every  rebel  in 
the  country,  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande,  understand  it, 
that  their  power,  their  authority  over  the  black  man  of  this  con- 
tinent, has  passed  away  forever.  (Cheers.)  I  want  them  to 
understand,  in  the  language  of  the  New  York  Herald,  of  yester- 
day, that  "  Slavery  is  destroyed,  and  with  its  death,  the.  compro- 
mises of  the  Federal  Constitution,  the  laws  of  Congress,  the  black 
laws  of  the  late  slave  States,  and  of  the  free  States,  and  all  the 
political  dogmas  and  ideas  upon  which  this  system  of  slavery  de- 


28 


pended,  must  be  numbered  among  the  things  of  the  past. 
The  Dred  Scott  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  from  the 
Supreme  Court,  under  which  the  negro  has  no  political  rights 
which  a  white  man  is  bound  to  respect,  goes,  with  all  this  other 
rubbish,  into  the  dumping-ground  of  slavery  "  (Immense  ap- 
plause )  And  I  serve  a  notice  here,  to-day,  upon  them,  that  I 
am  preparing  a  bill  that  I  intend  to  introduce  on  the  first  day  of 
the  next  Congress,  for  the  personal  liberty  of  every  freedrnan  of 
the  Republic.  (Applause.)  I  want  them  to  understand,  further, 
that  I  belong  to  a  body  of  men  that  are  nccustomed  to  sleep  on 
the  field  of  victory  (cheers;)  a  class  of  men  that  accept  the 
doctrines  of  the  New  Testament;  that  accept  as  the  living  faith 
of  the  North  American  Republic,  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence; a  class  of  men  that  represent  the  principles  of  liberty, 
humanity,  and  justice;  and  a  class  of  men  that  never  were,  and 
never  can  be  defeated.  (Applause.)  If  any  doubt  it,  let  them 
look  back  for  the  last  thirty  years,  and  they  will  doubt  no  longer. 

When  I  came  here,  a  young  man,  twenty-nine  years  ago  last 
May,  I  didn't  know  anybody  in  Washington,  and  nobody  had  any 
reason  to  know  me.  I  went  across  to  the  Island,-  saw  the  infa- 
mous Williams'  slave  pen ;  saw  the  poor  people  manacled  and 
marched  down  to  the  river-side,  and  shipped  off  to  the  "far 
South."  I  went  up  to  the  Capitol — to  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives— and  saw  the  slave-masters  "  laying  on  the  table "  the 
petitions  of  the  Christian  men  and  women  of  this  country  against' 
this  abominable  traffic  in  human  bodies.  In  the  pride  of  their 
power  they  thought  they  could  crush  out  the  spirit  of  the  people. 
I  went  back  to  Massachusetts,  filled  with  pity  for  the  hapless  bond- 
man, and  with  defiance  to  his  oppressor.  I  found  noble  men  and 
Christian  women  devoting  all  they  bad  and  all  they  hoped  to 
be,  to  the  cause  of  the  oppressed,  and  I  linked  my  name  with 
theirs  ;  and,  for  these  thirty  years,  I  have  acted  with  anti-slavery 
men,  who  have  put  up  parties  and  put  down  parties,  and  can  do 
it  again.  (Immense  cheering.) 

I  saw  a  grand  old  party,  led  by  Clay  and  Webster,  and  other 
men  of  eminent  talent  and  character,  yield  to  the  tempter,  bow 
humbly  at  the  feet  of  the  slave  power — and  then  I  saw  it  die. 
(Applause.) 

I  saw  an  "American  "  organization  spring  up ;  they  spoke  for 
liberty  and  voted  for  liberty,  but  they  were  seduced  by  the  slave 
oligarchy,  and  I  stood  by  their  grave  soon  after.  (Applause.) 

I  saw  the  old  "  Democratic  "  party — a  party  that  could  commit 
more  offences  against  h'umauity,  while  professing  to  be  its  cham- 
pion, than  any  other  party  that  bas  ever  existed,  ingloriously  de- 
feated— its  leaders  beaten.  I  have  seen  State  after  State — under 
its  acknowledged  influence — plunge  into  the  vortex  of  revolution 


29 


and  civil  war;  and,  after  four  years  of  bloody  struggle,  have  seen 
it  overwhelmed  and  overthrown,  from  Canada  to  Mexico.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Casting  aside  the  mere  obligations  of  partisanship,  standing  on 
the  eternal  principle  of  right,  anti-slavery  men  have  broken  the 
powerful  political  organizations  and  smitten  down  the  leaders  that 
have  been  recreant  to  liberty.  They  have  sworn  upon  the  altar 
of  patriotism,  to  stand  erect,  in  vindication  of  the  rights  of  man 
in  America;  and  so  long  as  there  is  a  right  not  secured  or  a 
wrong  unredressed,  they  are  ready  to  act  with,  to  build  up  or  pull 
down  political  organizations,  and  public  men. 

I  have  an  undeviating  faith  in  these  men ;  they  have  been 
tried  at  all  times  and  in  every  form,  but  they  have  marched 
steadily  onward,  achieving  victory  after  victory,  and  they  will  not 
shrink  from  any  contest  that  may  come  up  in  the  great  work  of 
consummating  freedom  for  all  men  in  America.  (Applause.)  I 
say  to  }ou  colored  men,  here  to-day,  that  ninety-five  of  every 
hundred  of  the  men  who,  in  November  last,  voted  for  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  Andrew  Johnson,  are  standing  now  shoulder  to  shoul- 
der for  the  emancipation  and  the  protection  of  your  race,  by  just, 
humane,  and  equal  laws.  (Cheers.)  They  believe,  with  Andrew 
Johnson,  that  •'•all  men  should  have  a  fair  start  and  an  equal 
chance  in  the  race  of  life,  and  that  merit  should  be  rewarded  with- 
out regard  to  color."  In  their  memories  will  linger  for  ever  the 
immortal  words  of  the  martyred  Lincoln  :  "  The  ballot  of  the  black 
man,  in  some  trying  time  to  come,  may  keep  the  jewel  of  liberty 
in  the  family  of  freedom." 

You  were  kind  enough,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  refer  to  the  fact  that 
I  had  introduced  the  bill,  which  passed,  abolishing  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  also  to  the  measure  annulling  the  black 
laws,  and  making  the  colored  man  liable  only  for  the  same  offences 
and  triable  and  punishable  for  the  same  offences  in  the  same 
measure  as  white  men.  That  bill  which,  with  some  amendments, 
became  the  law,  under  which  three  thousand  men,  women,  and 
children  were  emancipated,  and  the  National  Capital  made  for  ever 
free,  was  drawn,  at  my  request,  by  the  ready  and  accurate  pen  of 
Col.  Key,  of  Ohio,  then  with  me  on  the  staff  of  General  McClel- 
lan.  When  that  bill  was  pending,  we  were  assured  that  if  it  be- 
came the  law,  if  we  struck  the  manacles  from  your  hands,  that  the 
poor  houses  would  be  thronged,  the  prisons  crowded,  that  riots 
and  bloodshed  and  civil  war  would  come.  The  bill  passed — you 
thronged  the  churches  of  the  living  God  to  utter  thanks  and 
gratitude.  Three  years  have  passed  away,  and  here  you  are,  more 
intelligent,  stronger,  truer  than  ever  to  yourselves  and  your  coun- 
try. ("  That's  so — every  one."  Cheers.) 

They  told  us  }Tour  brothers  iu  the  South  would  obey  their  mas- 


30 


ters;  that  they  would  fight  for  their  rebel  leaders,  and  against  us. 
Is  there  a  man  here,  to-day,  that  has  seen  a  rebel  black  man  in 
this  contest  ?  Go  from  here  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  you  will  find 
no  one  who  has  ever  seen  a  rebel  black  man.  They  have  been 
God-fearing  and  law  abiding.  In  the  whole  history  of  this  country 
there  is  nothing  more  sublime  than  the  record  of  the  black  man 
in  this  struggle.  They  have  endured  indignity  and  death ;  they 
have  stood  by  our  brave  soldiers  and  sailors  in  the  thickest  fights  j 
they  have  guided  them  against  the  enemy ;  they  have  aided  our 
suffering  men  in  escaping  from  starving  prisons,  and  given  them 
food  and  shelter.  To-day,  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of  them  who 
can  look  upon  the  shining  arms  in  their  hands  and  feel  the  proud 
satisfaction  of  having  rendered  efficient  service  to  their  country. 
They  stood  by  their  country  in  the  hour  of  peril,  and  their  coun- 
try will  stand  by  them  in  its  hour  of  victory.  ("  Good,  good," 
and  great  cheering.)  Should  there  be  any  one  in  the  country 
who  doubts  this,  I  charge  him  to  "  possess  his  soul  with  patience ;  " 
his  doubts  will  be  solved  within  the  next  twelve  months. 

Men,  whose  prophetic  utterances  have  ever  been  falsified  by 
facts,  tell  us  that  the  loyal  black  men,  who  have  been  true  to  this 
country  when  their  homes  were  in  possession  of  armed  legions, 
when  slave-masters  dominated  and  controlled  vast  regions,  would, 
if  they  possessed  the  ballot,  vote  as  their  now  defeated  masters 
should  dictate — not  as  God  and  their  country  should  bid  them. 
They  who  trusted  in  their  God  and  remained  ever  loyal  to  their 
country  and  its  defenders,  when  the  power  of  the  slave-masters 
was  unbroken,  are  to  be  false  to  their  country,  to  freedom,  and 
themselves,'' when  the  power  of  their  old  masters  is  broken  and 
their  pride  humbled  !  If  there  ever  was  an  utterance  that  had 
not  the  remotest  semblance  of  reason  in  it,  it  is  that  utterance. 

We  are  told  that  the  power  to  confer  or  withhold  the  right  of 
suffrage  rests  with  the  States.  I  declare  to  you,  to-day,  that  if 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  had  said  to  the  rebels  after 
their  surrender,  after  they  had  been  humbled  into  nothingness, 
after  treason  had  murdered  President  Lincoln  :  "  We  shall  hold 
your  rebellious  States  with  the  military  power  of  the  nation  till 
you  are  ready  to  renew  your  practical  relations,  ('that's  the  doc- 
trine j ') — we  do  not  inteud  that  the  cause  of  this  rebellion,  which 
has  cost  us  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  lives,  and 
three  thousand  millions  of  dollars,  shall,  in  any  form,  make 
another  revolution  ;  we  have  no  revenges  ;  we  will  spare  your  for- 
feited lives  and  property,  but  you  must  accept  the  immediate  and 
unconditional  abolition  of  slavery;  you  must  amend  your  consti- 
tutions, making  it  forever  impossible  to  hold  property  in  man ; 
you  must  repeal  your  humiliating  and  degrading  black  codes,  and 
give  suffrage  to  the  loyal  men  of  the  country  without  distinction 


31 


of  color;" — every  rebel  State,  South  Carolina  included,  would 
have,  within  a  hundred  days,  accepted  these  conditions.  The 
rebel  States  would  have  accepted  these  conditions  with  alacrity, 
and  every  farseeing  Union  man,  of  the  loyal  States,  would  have 
approved  the  placing  of  the  weapon  of  self-protection  into  the 
hands  of  the  enfranchised  freedmen.  I  am  not  here  to  find  fault 
with  the  Government,  however,  though  I  fear  that  the  golden 
moment  to  secure  justice,  and  base  our  peace  on  the  eternal  prin- 
ciple of  right,  was  not  taken.  I  have  faith  in  the  motives  and 
purposes  of  the  administration,  and  shall  keep  my  faith,  unless  it 
shall  be  broken  by  future  deeds.  I  have  faith  in  the  motives  and 
purposes  of  President  Johnson,  who  told  the  colored  men  in  the 
capital  of  his  own  Tennessee,  that  he  would  be  their  Moses. 
Andrew  Johnson  will,  I  am  sure,  be  to  you  what  Abraham  Lincoln 
would  have  been,  had  he  been  spared  to  complete  the  great  work 
of  emancipatioa  and  enfranchisement. 

Pardoned  rebels  and  rebels  yet  unpardoned  flippantly  tell  us 
that  they  hold  in  their  hands,  yet  red  with  loyal  blood,  the  rights 
of  loyal  colored  men,  of  the  heroes  scarred  and  maimed  beneath 
the  dear  old  flag.  I  tell  these  repentant  and  unrepentant  but 
conquered  and  subdued  rebels,  that  while  they  hold  the  suffrage  of 
the  loyal  black  men  in  their  hands,  we,  the  loyal  men  of  America, 
hold  in  our  hands  their  lost  privilege  to  hold  office  in  the  civil 
service,  army  or  navy.  The  Congress  of  the  United  States  has 
placed,  upon  the  statute-book  a  law  forever  prohibiting  any  one 
who  has  borne  arms  against  the  country,  or  given  aid,  comfort,  and 
countenance  to  the  rebellion,  from  holding  any  office  of  honor, 
profit,  or  emolument  in  the  civil,  military,  or  naval  service  of 
the  United  States.  "Gentlemen  of  the  rebel  States,  you  loved 
office  in  the  past ;  you  deemed  yourselves  specially  ordained  to  fill 
them ;  there  is  not  one  of  you  who  can  have  one  of  those  offices 
until  this  matter  is  settled.  You  hold  the  rights  of  the  loyal 
black  man  in  your  hand ;  I  hold  your  lost  privilege  to  hold  office 
under  the  Federal  Government  in  mine.  I  am  generally  opposed 
to  compromises,  but  I  may  be  inclined  to  agree  to  this  compro- 
mise with  you.  When  you  allow  the  black  man  to  vote,  we,  the 
loyal  men  of  the  country,  may  consent  to  allow  you,  repentant  and 
pardoned  rebels,  to'  hold  office  under  the  Constitution.  (Ap- 
plause.) Remember  that  Executive  pardons  don't  give  you  the 
privilege  of  holding  office  or  putting  your  empty  hands  into 
the  Treasury.  Congress  and  a  loyal  people  hold  you  in  their 
power;  and  they  will  exact  justice  before  they  grant  privileges." 
(Cheers.) 

You,  sir,  invited  Mayor  Wallach  to  be  here  to-day,  but  I  don't 
see  him.  I  have  a  sort  of  dim  idea  that  if  you  held  the  right  of 
suffrage,  Mayor  Wallach  and  perhaps  the  whole  city  government 


32 


would  be  here.  (Cheers.)  To  insure  the  attendance  of  the  Mayor 
of  Washington  next  year,  I  would  suggest  that  you  early  send 
your  petitions  to  Congress  asking  for  the  ballot.  ("  We  will.")  I 
am  a  Yankee  and  have  the  right  to  guess,  and  I  guess  you  will 
get  it.  (Great  applause.) 

At  home  and  in  Congress  I  have  ever  labored  to  secure  to  the 
colored  men  of  my  country  equality  of  rights  before  the  law.  I 
would  give  to  all  men,  white  and  black,  equal,  just,  and  humane 
laws — the  same  that  I  ask  for  myself  and  kindred.  Having  ever 
battled  for  your  rights,  I  hope  you  will  allow  me  to  offer  on  this 
occasion  a  few  words  of  advice  and  admonition.  ("  We  will.")  It  is 
said  by  our  enemies  that  the  black  man  will  not  work  without  a 
lash  upon  his  back.  I  don't  believe  it.  (A  voice:  "I  know  it 
ain't  so.")  I  want  you  to  prove  by  deeds  that  your  enemies  have 
misjudged  you.  Deeds,  not  words,  must  silence  your  enemies,  vin- 
dicate the  confidence  of  your  friends.  Never  be  idle.  Cultivate 
the  brain  and  the  hand.  Engage  in  the  varied  industries  demand- 
ing the  trained  head  and  the  skillful  hand.  Be  temperate,  frugal, 
economical.  Get  homes.  Though  they  be  ever  so  humble, 
they  will  be  dear  to  you,  for  the  laws  of  your  country  will  make 
them  sacred.  Educate  your  children,  so  that  their  future  may  be 
brighter  than  your  past  or  present  Follow  not  the  example 
of  men  who  sat  in  the  shade  and  punished  poor  whisky  while  you 
were  driven  to  unpaid  toil  under  a  burning  sun;  but  imitate  the 
industry,  thrift,  and  economy  of  the  hardy  sons  of  toil,  who  till 
the  fields  and  fill  the  workshops  where  labor  is  honored  and  labor- 
ing me_n  respected,  God  made  you  as  he  made  the  rest  of  us,  to 
gain  your  bread  by  the  sweat  of  your  faces,  not  to  force  or  steal  it 
from  other  men.  Slave  masters  must  now  learn  this  hard  lesson. 
They  went  into  civil  war  to  get  the  right  to  carry  slaves  into  the 
territories,  and  they  come  out  of  it  without  the  right  to  hold  slaves* 
in  the  States.  (Great  applause.)  Those  slaveholders  who  expect 
to  pass  laws  to  oppress  or  punish  you  for  your  loyalty  will  find 
themselves  mistaken.  We  don't  intend  to  have  any  such  laws, 
and  if  they  pass  them  we  will  annul  them  in  the  Congress  of  the  • 
United  States.  I  want  them  to  understand  that.  (Cheers.) 

Advance  high  your  standard  of  rights  duties,  and  responsibili- 
ties. Call  none  master  but  God.  Walk  with  your  forehead  to 
the  skies.  Don't  insult,  any  man,  nor  allow  any  man  to  insult  you. 
Don't  strike  any  man,  nor  allow  yourselves  to  be  struck.  Let  it 
henceforth  and  forever  be  understood  by  friend  and  foe,  anywhere 
and  everywhere,  that  you  are  free — as  free  to  think,  speak,  and 
act  as  any  men  that  breathe  God's  air  or  walk  his  green  earth. 
(Cheers.)  Let  the  late  slave  masters,  from  the  Potomac  to  the 
Mexican  line,  fully  understand  that  you  are  amenable  to  the  same 
laws  as  themselves,  that  you  are  to  be  tried  for  their  violation  in 


33 


the  same  manner  and  punished  in  the  same  degree.  (Cheers.) 
Let  them  know  that  henceforth  you  will  utter  your  own  thoughts, 
make  your  own  bargains,  enjoy  the  fruits  of  your  own  labor,  go 
where  you  please  throughout  the  bounds  of  the  Republic,  and 
none  have  the  right  to  molest  or  make  you  afraid.  (Applause.) 
If  my  voice  to-day  could  penetrate  the  ear  of  the  colored  men  of 
my  country,  I  would  say  to  them  that  the  intelligence,  character, 
and  wealth  of  the  nation  imperatively  demands  their  freedom,  pro- 
tection, and  the  recognition  of  their  rights.  I  would  say  to  them : 
"Prove  yourselves  by  patience,  endurance,  industry,  conduct,  and 
character  worthy  of  all  that  the  millions  of  Christian  men  and 
women  have  done  and  are  doing  to  make  for  you — that  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  read  here  to-day — the  living  faith  of 
United  America. "  (Loud  and  prolonged  cheering.) 

Following  the  speech  of  Senator  WILSON,  interesting  remarks 
were  made  by  Senator  HAHN,  of  Louisiana,  and  by  Gen.  GREGORY, 
after  which  the  assembly  quietly  dispersed. 


O  IE1  IF  I  O  IE  IR,  S 

OF    THE 

ftttoiltt  gttmuwwtt 


PRESIDENT. 

REV.  HENRY  H.  GARNET. 

VICE   PRESIDENT. 

JAMES  WORMLEY. 

TREASURER. 

STEPHEN  SMITH,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

ASST.  TREASURER. 

WALKER  LEWIS,  Washington,  D.  C. 

RECORDING  SECRETARY, 

LOUIS  A.  BELL. 

CORRESPONDING   SECRETARY. 

WILLIAM  J.  WILSON. 

RESIDENT  BOARD  OF   DIRECTORS. 


CARTER  A.  STEWART. 
SAMUEL  J.  DATCHER. 
JOHN  F.  COOK. 
WILLIAM  SYPHAX. 
COLLINS  CRUSOR. 


GURDON  SNOWDEN. 
SAMUEL  H.  WILLIAMS. 
THOS.  E.  GREENE. 
SAMPSON  NUTTER. 


.A.  F  IP  IE  .A.  L 

TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  PROGRESS  EVERYWHERE. 

The  Directors  of  the  Association  earnestly  appeal  to  the  American 
public  to  aid  them  in  the  great  enterprise  in  which  they  are  engaged,  viz : 
the  erection  of  a  Colored  People's  Educational  Monument  to  the  memory 
of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

It  is  to  be  established  on  the  broadest  principles,  and  designed  to  bene- 
fit all,  of  whatever  race,  class,  or  condition,  who  may  seek  admission 
within  its  walls. 

Education  is  the  corner-stone  of  the  advancement  of  all  men,  social 
and  political.  They  ask  for  aid  in  spreading  abroad  the  great  lights 
of  knowledge  and  truth,  for  in  taking  this  step  they  feel  that  they  are 
but  carrying  out  a  principle  dear  to  the  great  heart  of  that  illustrious  man 
whose  name  the  monument  is  designed  to  perpetuate. 

All  contributions  sent  to  the  Assistant  Treasurer,  Walker  Lewis,  at  the 
Office  of  the  Association,  201  G  St.,  Washington,  D.  C.,  will  be  promptly 
acknowledged. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

973.7L63D2N21C  C001 

CELEBRATION  BY  THE  COLORED  PEOPLE'S  EDUC 


31 12  031 81 01 50 


